British lawyer-turned-playwright who penned Sleuth, which ran for more than 2,300 performances on London's West End and more than 2,000 on Broadway. It won the Tony Award for best play in 1970. The play was adapted for the big screen in 1972 and starred Michael Caine and Laurence Olivier. Shaffer also wrote the screenplays to three Agatha Christie films, Murder on the Orient Express,Death on the Nile, and Evil under the Sun.